The Mail Bag
Eleven Tiger Tims please...
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Heres a longish cut and paste, sorry, from todays Gruniard by our Tim. (Contrast this with Messrs Heitinga and Pienaar...)
"It was the night of Graham Poll's three card trick against Croatia and Australia had squeezed through. Thunderstruck by AC/DC reverberated around the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium in Stuttgart and as Cahill cavorted around the running track he spotted a royal blue No 17 jersey in the crowd. His next move was no insincere badge-kissing display of affection.
He recalls: "I saw Everton jerseys at every Australia game in the last World Cup and when we qualified against Croatia there was one close to me, so I went into the crowd and swapped jerseys. It was a big moment in my life and something I'll never forget. It's priceless when I play for Australia and see an Everton shirt in the crowd, or when I play for Everton and there's an Aussie supporter there, and that was the most prized possession I have given away."
Mark Murphy, Posted 07/06/2010 at 14:24:28
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He pushed the media aside to swap shirts with that blue AND he has already signed to stay with us BEFORE going off to show the world what he can do!
Remember, he's not just a "nice guy", he's a top footballer and when fully fit grabs almost as many goals from midfield as Frank Lampard.
Maybe not Barcelona, but a second tier "big club" would have certainly looked to have taken a punt on him in the last few years.
Good on ya, Tim.
I might add that maybe a few of our 'less contented' fans who like a good moan should think that perhaps Everton FC isn't in such a bad way afer all. Sometimes you need an outsider to come in and see things for what they really are. Tim Loves Everton... and we love him!
He could easily have gone but he never. A dying breed this man is and it fills me with confidence he has signed again, which surely can only help us keep his best buddy Arteta.
Tim Cahill is not worthy of being idolised.
Like many others, he has games when he hasn't been his usual self, but this guy is guaranteed legend status in the annals of Goodison folklore. And it's not for what he has said, we all know words are cheap, but for what he has done. Blood, sweat and tears in the cause and goals which will make a best-selling DVD when he calls it a day.
Having watched the Champions League and seen the quality of a lot of the teams who get in each season, I would say there are quite a few who, at his peak, Cahill would have got a game at.
Compared to Gary Lineker, he is far from fast. It is not the power of his shot or its unerring accuracy... so who is this player that has Germany's coaching staff burning the midnight oil and pouring over videos? He isn't anywhere near the same class as Beckenbaur, nor does he have anywhere near Bobby Moore's positional sense, nor is he a colossus in the mould of a John Charles.
Who the hell is it that has everyone in the Fatherland biting their nails?The bloke in question is average sized and posses only tiny bits of all the above attributes.
There are a few things that mark him down as a number one dangerman for national and international defenders. One is his enormouse competitive spirit; another is a remarkable stamina... but most of all is a bewildering goal sense in and around the box.
Yes folks, of all the players that Germany will face in this World Cup. none will be more feared than our own Tiger Tim.
But as you point out, Cahill is now past his best and was rubbish this season (in the whole).
I am not sure how being a supporter and appreciating the commitment, workrate and skill of one of your players is "creepy". Surely that would make all football fans "creepy" as you put it.
Original poster: We need 11 Tim Cahill's. Reality: 11 Tim Cahills would probably meant flirting with relegation this season as for the majority of it he wasn't very good. Everyone hates Heitinga at the moment because of his comments, but if we had 11 Heitinga's we would be Champions League contenders.
I appreciate the players who you know are giving 100% every single game most noticibly: Howard, Hibbert, Baines, Distin, Pienaar, Arteta, Saha. I don't think Cahill does.
Your statement about flirting with relegation with 11 Cahills are stupid and too far.
Distin..... Really?!
Read no sarcasm into this. I'm impressed. Impressed to the point I feel you shouldn't be wasting your opinions on the off-season Blues.
Go here, http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=bos
You can twist a routine story about a soccer player expressing his pride in playing for his country as the WC is about to unfold? You were born to be a RedSox fan.
Alex, if we have 11 Cahills and 11 Heitinga, we will definitely be relegation material. Afterall, I doubt Tim makes a good centre half or goalkeeper, nor will Heitinga be a good striker or goalkeeper!
Point is, everyone has his value in the team, which is why, it's called a team.
Cahill's role doesn't need him to provide the creative spark (a la Arteta or Pienaar), he provides the nuisance-factor, defends from the front and be at the end of cross or set piece to score the goal. 45 goals in 6 years (166 games) against all sorts in the league. 6 years on, no one (from 'bigger' clubs to 'smaller' clubs) have figured out a way to stop this man.
COYB
Think about it: What would a real kopite gain from posting more than once on here?... and how long would their posts remain up for? [Some of you may remember one particularly odious little kopite twat called "Eddie Honda" who would visit regularly. Just a part of the reason for the excellent membership system Lyndon implemented.]
As for last season, his early poor form was mainly down to being asked to play out wide, even Arteta is not as good in this position.
And how in hells name do you know that no top clubs have come in for him?? Just because he isn't mentioned in gossip columns doesn't mean clubs haven't been interested. We all know how much Wenger admires him.
This is a good post and I'm afraid your attempt to hijack it, Alex, has failed.
It's a very positive article, Alex, and why you feel the need to pour so much damp water on it and find negativity in a player bigging us up in an article that is basically about the World Cup and Australia is just puzzling.
I dont "idolise" footballers any more — not since the Latch, Dobson, King and Co threatened to strike for pay after having a decent season — but Tim Cahill will go down alongside Mick Lyons, Alan Ball, Duncan McKenzie and Sharpy as one of my favourite Blues ever.
And when we have no fully fit strikers, we play 4-6-0, with Cahill leading the line. The old memory can't remember Man Shitty away eh? Setting up both goals.
Absolute bollocks post, Alex.
I got married a few months ago and my wife wrote to Everton asking for something signed. And I got an A4 full colour pic of Cahill, and he had personally wrote a good luck message on it. I bloody love him!!!
Cahill, to his credit, has never once said he wanted to play his football anywhere else, except to end his playing days in his home country.
Top man. Legend IMO.
It might be a weird concept to adore sporting athletes when you're an adult, but that's what makes us fans (fanatical).... and, to be honest, at the age of 30, I still dream about scoring the winning hat-trick in the FA Cup Final against the redshite after being 2-0 down with 10 mins to play ("Moyes looks like he's clutching at straws, bringing on his 3rd and final substitution, the largely untested Duncan McDine.... ")
Players like Tim Cahill live our dreams, and when they show the kind of passion for our club that we feel, you just have to love 'em.
>Alex, you cannot be more wrong about Timmy. He has admitted that he would sign for life only for wanting to play his last days of football here in Aus — where he will be paid not even 50% of what he earns at Everton, which tells me that IMO, it's not about the money and that's the only footballer I know who is not in it for the money.
Good Luck to him in the World Cup because he deserves it. An Everton Great!
Me and my sister were sat behind one of the goals in our Everton shirts and as we took our seats someone said that the payers had already been over to sign autographs so thought we'd missed our chance.
A couple of minutes later, over walks Tim to talk to his friends and family. After spotting the two of us in blue he cut short the conversation and came over to sign autographs and to have some photos taken.
True blue.
Personally, I like Cahill... but legend? Not sure on that. I can see what Alex is trying to point out. Cahill is a bit of a showman but we all love that at Everton, don't we?
As a boy, I used to think that Duncan McKenzie was amazing because it was reported he could jump over a car!
He's all about respect.... look how he showed Millwall respect when he knocked them out of the FA Cup a few seasons back. They had given him his opportunity so while he did his job for Everton (and did it well) he still showed respect for them. He's a fan of the game that got to live his dream and never forgot where he came from. True legend in my eyes.
Duncan McDine... good luck mate!! I dream the same dream, ha!
I'll never forget that Hibbo signed his contract the same day as Rooney and, whilst they are miles apart in talent, I'll always be happy to see Hibbo in our team. He was harshly judged in my eyes for just one bad half in that FA Cup Final and is better than the stick he gets. But that's another thread....
Duncan, I'm a 51-year-old vets team left back and I still watch Bainesie closely in preparation for my call-up should he be injured!
Also what is the point, or enjoyment in a debate if everyone is on the same side?
If you'd have said Cahill doesn't have the natural ability of Saha, I would have agreed. But doesn't try as hard as Saha?
I'm not sure that I've seen Saha give 100% for more than about 2 minutes, but he's a good player and I'm happy to have him. But Cahill would run through walls for Everton and then he'd run through redshites, turn around and run through them again and then jump up and down on them for a bit, for Everton. I'm surprised that you question that.
Tim's headlock on Alonso in the derby is enough to go down in folklore and he's done plenty besides.
He didn't have his best season, I don't think people will argue about that but, at the risk of riling people on here, he's done more for Everton than Big Dunc ever did and with plenty more dignity as well.
I went to every single game last season, home and away, and to say "he was pretty bad for 75% of the season" is completely untrue. As I have said before, he didn't start the season very well because he was carrying an injury and was playing out of position, but from November onwards he started to get his form back. In the last few months of the season he was one of our best players.
People forget that Ferguson was a hero not because he was a world class footballer or indeed a gentleman, but the mid-90s gloom which hung over Goodison was suffocating. Ferguson offered a ray of light, some hope, a breath of fresh air to the misery of year-after-year relegation escapes.
The life story documentary was on Australian TV, hence the interviewer being Stave Waugh, not made for release in England, where he actually plays.
Everton FC — the Club — must have seen a money maker and made it into a DVD for us fans that don't get Australian TV.
Don't get me wrong — I'll always have a place for Big Dunc in my heart, but he was the anti-hero. He was loved inspite of himself for quite a few of the wrong reasons. Like the photo of him throttling Stefan Freund... brilliant, but hardly dignified.
He also cost Everton an awful lot of money, without giving a massive amount back. Had he been fit and played as many games as Cahill, then he would have been a true blue legend, but he didn't.
Cahill has always given everything, despite being played out of position for large portions of the last few seasons. Can you imagine Saha, or Big Dunc, being told, "Right — we're short, so you're on the wing, off you go, give 100%"
You can debate Cahill's ability and his hero status, but you can't debate his heart and what he gives to the team. And on top of that, he comes across as a genuine bloke who appreciates what he has and not a prima donna arsehole.
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1 Posted 07/06/2010 at 15:39:17
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